One of the things that really burns my buttons about the military is the fact that a person can not sue for medical malpractice. This means military doctors can get away with outrageous stuff and never have to worry about paying for it later.
The reason for this is called the "Feres Doctrine". I'm fairly sure this law was inacted to prevent the federal government from getting sued for medical malpractice and other types of neglect. For the past 50 years people have been trying to overturn this law to no avail. (Even though a measure to overturn passed the House of Representitives 4 times, only to fail each time in the Senate.)
The problem with this is that it makes it very very hard to keep military doctors and nurses responsible. And from what people can tell (and it's hard to find out because the military refuses to give any real numbers) military doctors are more likely to make mistakes and get away with it than in the civilian world.
The worst part is a lot of times the deaths from malpractice mean that mothers with 2 or more kids are left to live off their husbands retirement money (not enough). They're given no extra financial help and the doctor(s) in question don't get punished.
I think the military needs to take some initive here. Why not set up their own system to deal with malpractice? For instance, a mother with children loses her husband due to malpractice or neglect. This is what I think she should be entitled to:
1: If her husband had 3 years left in the military, she should get 3yrs of full paychecks (that her husband would have provided) and benifits. Or, if he was just about to get out, 1 full year of full paychecks. These paychecks should continue even if she gets remarried within that time frame.
A: It takes time for the "lawsuite" to go through. So I suggest that if the claim is made, this should be immediately activated until proven false.
2: She should be entitled to full retirement paychecks and benifits until she dies. (Currently this is all the widow gets, and even that is taken from her if she gets remarried.)
3: The wife should get a certain amount of money (lets say 20,000$) up front.
4: Each child should get a collage scholorship of at least 2,000$ or more.
5: The doctors or nurses responsible should have a rank reduction, a cut in pay for a period of time, and write a formal apology to the family. (I don't see why they don't do this at least, since even senior airmen caught drinking and driving get a rank reduction. >_>)
6: During the time of their punishment, the doctor or nurse in question should have this malpractice put on public record. Any patient they see will have to sign a piece of paper acknowledging that they know this person has had a malpractice charge brought against them.
The jury that sees malpractice charges should not be completely military. Half the board should consist of civilian doctors. That way the board will not be biased towards the federal government saving money.
I think most of what I've listed is entirely fair. And if the military took this initive they wouldn't have to worry about Feres getting overturned someday and them getting their asses sued off. (Because it'll happen... it'll happen...) They would have complete control over how much money they lose. Plus it would be good for their public image. :P
And that's all I have to say in the matter. I dearly hope I never have to experiance severe malpractice at military doctors hands. This is, btw, part of the reason I'm deathly afraid of going "under the knife" by a military doctor. >_>
3 comments:
Wow. That seems like a pretty unfair situation the military puts you in. Do you know what the original reasoning was behind the law? Surely they didn't actually say it was to avoid being sued...
Nice to see you're still blogging...hope you're doing well in Japan!
p.s. don't you think it's about time you changed your location in your profile? :)
From what I could gather the original reasoning behind the law was to prevent the *Federal Government* from getting sued. I guess the law was not very specific, so people interpretted the law to mean that if you are a doctor employed by the Federal Government you *can not be sued*.
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